Scarred Love
by poetrygirl22
Summary: A collection of Ghanith and Valduggery Oneshots. Varying genres, ranging from fluffy to angst. Not in chronological order. Used to be just Ghanith Oneshots. Enjoy!
1. A book

**Sadly I do not own any characters.**

**This is my first Ghanith fic so forgive me for any mistakes.**

**I'll try to update as often as I can.**

**Please please review, it really makes my day.**

**(China is really angry because she was counting on getting that book. Most things she wants she gets, and not getting them would be a personal insult. The fact that he does not find her faintly attractive would just rub salt on the wound. Just to clarify.)**

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"My dear Ghastly, thank you so much for having me."

"What do you want, China?" Ghastly spoke wearily, grunting out the words with a barely concealed sigh. He was working on a case with a sorcerer who seemed to think he could just stroll into mortal's houses and take what he wants. He was planning to go home at around lunch today, he had worked enough extra hours to deserve a day or two off. He had been planning to take Tanith to London, spend a romantic long weekend there. They didn't spend enough time together, what with their jobs taking up most of their time. Tanith had got a job at the Irish sanctuary, throwing herself into danger every day to apprehend mages who had done crimes, mostly murder or attempted murder. Ghastly had enough confidence in her abilities to not let the anxieties eat him alive, but there was a constant, niggling worry at the furthest corner of his mind that whispered to him that she might never come home. Most days he managed to ignore it.

And there was his job on the Council of Elders. It seemed ironic that he took the job purely to find her, but once they had, the same job was tearing them apart. He was constantly being called out during the night, leaving before sunrise most mornings and often arriving home after dark. Often when he get home on time she would be taking the nightshift, and they wouldn't even pass each other in the hallway. Even when they overcame these difficulties and managed to sit down together, the fact that he was her 'boss' turned into the proverbial elephant in the room. There relationship was taking a hit, and Ghastly couldn't lose her.

Hence this. Every month or so, they would take off, travel the world or stay at home. They would go shopping, go on cases, travel around Dublin on her motorbike. The motorbike made him feel vaguely sick, but it was worth it. Feeling her hair fly back onto his face, his body pressed against hers. There bodies got together so perfectly, like they were always meant to be. They were free to do whatever they wanted when they wanted to do it. And those occasional moments where they could sit back and bask in their glorious lone affair, made everything worth it.

She was so beautiful. Powerful and fiery and smart and funny. He loved her. He loved her with every single part of him, and he would never truly deserve her. But she held his heart in her hand so tenderly, and kissed him in a way that made him so sure that this was more than just another fling. It was the way she smile at him, her eyes apologising for whatever the stupid mage who thought he deserved her was trying to do. He was hers, and she was his. And it would always be that way. But that didn't mean he had to just sit back as Ravel pressed his body against hers. It wasn't his fault that the jug of iced water suddenly tipped over him, or that his coffee suddenly fell all over his clean white shirt. Or that his robes suddenly became a size too small right before an extremely important meeting.

But that date night obviously wasn't going to happen tonight. China Sorrows had strode into his office with his name on her lips and determination in her eyes. He had answered gruffly because Tanith would probably be waiting by now, and he did not want to spend his time trying to negotiate with China.

"Right then, a hello would have been nice, you know." She giggled, and Ghastly tried to paint on a smile that was the tiniest bit convincing. "But I'll take what I'm given." She slid a leather bound book onto the table with a smile. "You see, this marvellous copy of the Alared Chronicles has recently come has come into my possession. This particular artefact comes in two volumes…"

"And the sanctuary has the first one." Ghastly dragged his hands down his face, breathing deeply. He had hoped it wouldn't be about a book.

"Exactly!" China clapped her hands. "I was wondering if I could buy that copy? I'd be incredibly grateful." She said it hesitantly, her eyes widening and filling with hope. She bit her lip seductively, fluttering her long eyelashes. She leaned forward onto his desk, bracing her hands against the smooth wood. "Really, really grateful." She moved a little bit closer. She seemed to glow, beauty seeming to radiate off her and light up the entire room.

It really was quite a show. But Ghastly was tired, and he barely felt the attraction. She was using her powers to make him love her, but it wasn't working. He had given everything to Tanith, and there nothing left for China to manipulate. Even at her most wonderful, most bewitching moments, she wouldn't have half the beauty that Tanith when she had twigs in her hair and dirt and blood all over her body.

"I'm sorry Miss Sorrows, but we can't allow that." China looked crestfallen.

"Why ever not?" Ghastly searched through the pile of papers on his desk, looking for the right one. He found it, and read out the first line.

"It says here that the book was confiscated because: 'The volume contained information that could be used negatively against the Sanctuary'." Ghastly slid the sheet towards the dark haired lady sitting opposite him. She frowned down at the paper, her forehead creasing.

"Are you sure?" She bit her lip again, shifting in her seat.

"Certain."

She paused. "Do you not like me, Mr Bespoke?" The question made the elder glance up.

"I don't see how that is relevant."

"But you don't, do you?" China looked at him thoughtfully, like she was trying to figure out a complicated puzzle.

"What makes you think that?"

"Most people, I can… negotiate with. Whereas you seem totally unaffected."

"I have a girlfriend, who I love. I'm loyal to her."

"Yes, but that doesn't stop anyone else." She scowled, her once innocent face twisting. Ghastly shrugged. She leant forward, bending towards him. He leant back. "Every. One. Feels. Something." With every word she brought her fist down on the desk. "Why. Don't. You?" Her voice rose into a shout. He shuffled back in his chair. Her eyes flashed dangerously. Then her face broke out into a wide, toothy smile. She walked around, dragging her hand along his bicep.

"Miss Sorrows, that is not appropriate." Ghastly put as much authority into his voice as he could.

"I don't know what spell that Tanith Low put on you, but she has got you good hasn't she. She isn't that pretty, she isn't that clever. She is nothing." All the blood rose to Ghastly's face. He shoved the woman away from him, shaking his head. China pressed her left hand to her right elbow, and a wall of blue hit his face and made him shoot backwards. He lay in the floor, and the ebony haired lady stood over him. "You're disfigured. You're ugly, you should beg…" Her voice was cut off as she was pulled backwards. Ghastly sat up to see to women fighting on the floor, recognising Tanith instantly. China put her hand on the back of her neck and Tanith lifted up into the air before being thrown back down again. China held her down, her hands lowing red. Ghastly sprung into motion, lashing out with his foot onto her back. He punched her in the side of the head, following it up with a punch to the jaw and a chop in the throat that made her body slump forward.

Tanith stood up, dark red marks on her wrist where China's fingers had held her down. Ghastly held her close, breathing heavily. He whispered in her ear.

"I love you."

"I love you more." Then she pressed her lips to his, their kiss becoming more passionate with every second. Tanith Low wrapped her legs around his waist as Ghastly Bespoke stepped over the limp body of China Sorrows to press her up against the wall.


	2. Closed doors

**I own a lot of things, but sadly not these characters.**

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"I think you should leave."

"I agree. I'm so…"

"Just get out." The skeleton walked out of the shop entrance, his bare skull glinting in the hazy sun. Then dark clouds rolled in, the raindrops dripping down the back of his neck. He left his hat sitting on the table beside the game of cards they had been playing moments earlier. The tailor watched him go, before turning around and walking purposefully further into the shop. The woman in tight leather reached out for him, but he moved his arm away. She instead fell into step beside him, her face creased with worry and his with anger. He shoved through a door, walking down the steps on the other side. The blonde following.

"Please Ghastly, can we talk about this?" Her voice was quiet and gentle, her hand coming up to cup his face. He flinched away. Her hand fell down by her side.

"I can't, I just can't. I love you, but I need to be on my own." His voice was full of raw emotions. "Just let me sort this out. Please." Tanith released him, and he strode through a second door and slammed it behind him. The muscular lady dragged her hand across her face, her breath rattling out of her lungs. Whatever Skulduggery had said, it must have been terrible.

When Tanith had found out that her cousin had betrayed her, she had reacted terribly. She had jumped on a plane and travelled the world, sleeping around and throwing herself into her work. To hear something terrible from your best friend must be absolutely horrible. She slid down the door, pressing the back of her head against the cool wood. She could use her powers to unlock the door and jump in demanding some answers. But that wouldn't be wise, and this wasn't about them.

It was between Skullduggery Pleasant and Ghastly Bespoke, and as much as she hated, she would just have to be the patient girlfriend. She pressed her hand against the door again, imagining the man she loved on the other side. "We'll make it through this, won't we?" She murmured into the wood. She didn't get an answer.

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Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Constantly the sound echoed through the shop, clearly audible in every room. The sound of a fist repetitively hitting a punching bag. It had been going on for three days. Tanith had tried everything. Talked to him, put food on the other side of the door to try and tempt him out. He'd eat it when she wasn't there. It wounded her a little bit, knowing that he didn't want to see her. But she knew it was just the healing process, and what he was going through was near impossible.

When she asked Skulduggery told her. About how he became Vile, murdering all those people. Murdered Ghastly's own mother. She shouted, threw a vase at him. She had walked out, smashing a plant pot so she wouldn't smash any heads. But Val had talked her round, convincing her that that was the war, and he was different man now. Reminded her of how many times he made her nerves vanish, picked her up when she woke up in some bed she want to be in. Gave her coffee to beat a hangover, and put up with her vomiting on his shoes. Saved her life even if it meant unbelievable pain for him. Val had sat next to her, and told her that when he changed into Vile, he wasn't Skullduggery anymore. He was something else, like she was with Darquesse. And them she had said how Skullduggery had had that guilt on his shoulders for centuries, never truly happy because he thought that he was a monster and deserved to be punished for his crimes. That he didn't even have death to look forward to.

So it was slow and arduous, and it hurt her, but she forgave him. She shared the weight he had been carrying around for too long, just as she had with Darquesse. Because if anyone did, he deserved to be forgiven.

That night she sat against Ghastly's door once again, and let her tears fall for the first time. "Please come out Ly. It hurts so much, I know it does. I'll never understand how much it hurts, but please let me in." She whispered it with her face pressed into the wood, and on the other side her lover buried his head in his hands.

After one more day, when Tanith was sleeping fitfully in their cold bed, she heard a noise from outside. It was the noise of something heavy being chucked into a wall. She jumped up, pulling on her leathers and grabbing her sword. She wrenched the door open and sprinted outside, the sight hitting her like a brick wall. Ghastly and Skullduggery were fighting outside the shop. Valkyrie ran into the street, heading for the two men with a fireball already growing in her cupped hand. Tanith ran towards her pushing her backwards. She held on to the younger woman, stopping her from joining the fight.

"Let me go, I need to help."

"No, this is their fight. They need this, trust me." Clarity shone in Valkyrie's eyes, and she stopped struggling. Tanith turned to watch the fight, struggling not to jump in herself.

"Who do you think'll win?" Tanith let a smile hint at the corners of her mouth.

"Ghastly. Skul's a detective, and good at his job. But nobody beats Ghastly. This is what he does."

Ghastly ducked under a swipe from Skulduggery, the skeleton narrowly avoiding his fist. He lunged again and Skul ducked underneath it, coming up and twisting his arm. Before he could do any real damage Ghastly sent a kick into his kneecap, making his leg buckle underneath him. The skeleton rolled, coming up with a hand to the side of the face that made the scarred man stagger back. They were followed by a swift kick in the shin and punch in the stomach that made Ghastly stagger backwards. Then the tailor jumped forward, taking Skulduggery's arm and twisting it backwards until it made a snapping sound. He groaned and staggered backwards, and Tanith had to restrain her friend. Ghastly charged forward again, his foot hooking on to the back of the skeleton's knee and pulling his legs out from underneath him. The skeletal man fell to a heap on the floor, and Ghastly closed his eyes, breathing deeply. Then he walked away down a dark avenue, and Tanith watched him go, praying to whatever god there was out there that he would come home in one piece.

He returned back early in the morning, walking through into their small kitchen.

"Are you okay?" Tanith asked the scarred man gently, approaching him hesitantly.

"No more locking myself away. Promise." Then he took the woman he loved most in the world in his arms and pressed his lips to hers.

They didn't become best friends again immediately and there was enough tears and arguments to last a lifetime, but they'd been through too much together to ruin it because of mistakes in the war. The fight had shown Ghastly who his friend still was. The same man he'd always been. And the same man he always would be.


	3. Property

**I own no character's.**

**Please review, I love it when you share your views.**

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"Tanith Low, it's mighty good to see ya." Tanith jumped, her glass of water smashing on the floor. She turned towards the source of the american drawl. Her feet refused to move, her whole body refusing to listen to what her brain demanded it to. She should run, or fight, or speak, or do something. But she just stood there, staring the face she had wished she would never see again.

It was one o'clock in the morning of Christmas Day. The tailor's shop was full of tinsel and trees, despite what her fiancé had said. Ghastly was sleeping in the other room, and they were happy here. A month ago exactly he had asked her to marry him, and she had said yes without even thinking. She had moved in and redecorated, out with the darkness and in with the light. She, for the first time in her eventful life, was truly content. Living with the man she loved, surrounded by friends. She was having the time of her life, and Billy Ray Sanguine did not belong in it.

It had been hard, getting the remnant out. It had refused to leave her. And after that long, it had almost become a part of her. It had taken a full year of operations and experiments before she was truly herself again. A full year of agony for her friends, who had to watch go in more and more operations, all the time knowing that she might not make it. That there was the tiniest chance that she would be the same person she had been before. But they had stayed with her, even when it used her voice to yell at them, insult them, tell them to leave. The things she had said were terrible, but what she had done was so much worse. She found out a timeline from various people, each story worse than the last.

She had killed people who had once been her friends, murdered mortals for fun, even threatened Valkyrie's parents. It was disgusting. But maybe the hardest thing to swallow was the way she played with Ghastly's heart. She loved him, and she always had, but the remnant had turned that love to hate. She had fling with Sanguine to hurt him, flaunting their love affair whenever she could. She had given him hope, and then teared it down. And somehow he found in his heart to save her from herself. He loved her, through every nightmare, and every terrible story about what she had done. Had held her through it all.

But everyone had a limit, and if he saw her with Sanguine, everything would fall apart. Because if he knew exactly what she had done, there would be no going back. Her perfect life would fall apart, and she couldn't survive without him. It was a simple as that. She couldn't handle the atrocities she'd done on her own. If he wasn't there she would break, and would lose the motivation to live. He was everything to her, and she couldn't handle not waking up next to him every morning. She needed his humour, his laughter, his strength, the gruff way he told her that he loved her, as much as she needed oxygen.

"Are you not going to say hello?" He took a step towards her, and she willed herself to punch him, break his neck. But she couldn't move. He took another step, his aftershave hitting her like a brick wall. He reached out, his rough hands stroking her face. She felt like she going to be sick. Suddenly he pushed her backwards, the wall cracking behind her to let her through. It sealed around her, trapping her hands and legs. A strip stretched across the face, stopping a single noise from escaping her mouth. She struggled, but it she couldn't move an inch. He took off his sunglasses, smiling sadistically at her. She looked away from the gaping holes where his eyes should be. A tear made her vision blur. He seemed to drink her in, her messy hair and her short nightdress that was a bit too small. "You look very sexy tonight, darling."

"Sanguine." A black silhouette appeared at the door, the shout echoing through the room. Sanguine turned around, his straight razor glinting in the light of the full moon.

"Ghastly." He tried to sound tough, but Tanith detected the slightest tremor of fear. Ghastly stepped into the room, his muscles seeming more pronounced than they usually did. His scars were blood red, a snarl twisting his mouth that usually had an easy smile. Anger made every feature sharper, more menacing. For the first time Tanith saw how truly terrifying he could be, how even the sight of him could strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. And Sanguine was definitely an enemy.

"What are you doing here?" He took a step into the kitchen, his eyes glinting dangerously.

"Just taking back what is rightfully mine, sir." Sanguine stretched out the sir, his tone sarcastic and mocking. He slipped his sunglasses back on.

"There is nothing here that is yours." The tailor was struggling to keep his voice calm.

"What about the blonde beauty behind me?" She tried to escape her prison, but it was impossible.

"Tanith Low does not belong to you."

"Oh, does she belong to you then. You're disfigured, ugly. She told me that herself." Ghastly charged at Sanguine, knocking him away from her. He turned around just in time to move away from the sharp blade heading towards his face. He ducked low and punched the assassin in the stomach, causing him to double up. He followed it with a punch to the head, the force of it wrenching his head backwards with so much force that the sunglasses spun away and smashed on the wall. Sanguine looked dazed, trying to kick the scarred man's shin but failing. The razor glinted, and Tanith tried a shout a warning as it cut into her fiancé's skin. It cut into his forehead, making him roar with anger. He took hold of Sanguine's leg and wrenched it backwards, the bone a splintering, cracking sound. The texan cried out, all the colour draining from his face. His leg was bent awkwardly underneath him, obviously broken. The ground opened up underneath him, and Ghastly pulled him up into the air. He held up, his feet not quite touching the floor. He put his face close to the other one's, blood from his forehead dripping onto the floor.

"You don't deserve her." With every word he pressed a little harder into the american's neck.

"What, and you do?" The texan choked out, gasping for air.

"You're right. I don't deserve her. She chooses who she loves, and if she honestly loved you, I don't think she'd be standing in my kitchen. So you should listen up Sanguine. Tanith Low is not your property. Do you know why I love her? Not only because she'd beautiful, funny, stupidly brave and intelligent. I love her because she is free. She doesn't care what society thinks, doesn't do what everyone expects her to. She lives her life to the full every day, and doesn't let anything stop her. She is her own woman. And she does what she wants. If she chooses you, I'll let you walk out of here. Leave you alone. I promise. But I have a feeling that's not going to happen. Now release her."

"And if I don't?" Ghastly stamped down on his broken leg, the bone making another crunching sound. Sanguine screamed out, and Tanith dropped to the floor. She stood up, walking to stand in front of the american. She opened a draw across from her, taking something out and smiling at him sweetly.

"My dear, dear Sanguine." He smiled. "You are now under arrest for murder, attempted murder, terrorism and assault on an elder. Anything you say could be used against in court, but honestly, with the amount of red on your ledger, I can't you see you doing too much damage." She smiled at him again, snapping the hand cuffs onto his wrists. She smiled up at her fiancé. He nodded at her. And her fist crunched into the criminal's jaw, making his head fall forward and his limbs go limp. The tailor dropped him on the floor, and she rushed into his arms. She placed her lips on his. He kissed her back.

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologise. It was that thing, not you." She breathed out, trying in vain to blink back the tears. Then she stepped back, straightening up.

"Sit down, you're hurt. And that cuts by that razor don't heal."

"Don't worry about it. Its just another scar."


End file.
